In many circumstances, preparation of food items with a cooktop appliance can be challenging. For example, for novice chefs, determining the proper doneness of foods can be difficult. As another example, for a user that is distracted by other tasks, such as, for example, chopping or dicing other ingredients, preparing the dining environment, or performing child care, certain items may not be properly cooked due to inattentiveness.
As one example, if a user is distracted or performing another task, the user may fail to notice that a pot of water or other liquid has reached a boiling state. Failure to reduce the heat once the liquid has achieved the boiling state can cause a number of problems including, for example, overcooking of the dish, splatter of liquid onto the cooktop surface, or even complete evaporation of the liquid, a condition referred to as “boil-dry,” which can potentially lead to ignition of a fire. Therefore, systems and methods for cooking event detection (e.g. boil detection) at a cooktop are desirable.
Certain existing systems have been proposed for performing detection of boiling and other cooking events. As an example, motion sensors can be used to detect motion at the cooktop. However, these systems suffer from significant problems with accuracy, as human motion (e.g. stirring) or rising steam trigger the sensor and leads to a false positive of a boiling event.
As another example, other existing systems may use temperature sensors to attempt to detect cooking events. However, these systems can suffer from problems with accuracy and granularity, as well. For example, temperature sensors in a generally heated environment such as a cooktop may lead to significant numbers of errors.
Therefore, cooktop appliances providing intelligent response to cooktop audio are desirable.